US v. John Trala

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 5:13-cr-00282-D-1. Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [999518780]. [14-4308]

Appeal: 14-4308

Doc: 38

Filed: 01/28/2015

Pg: 1 of 3

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 14-4308

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff – Appellee,
v.
JOHN WALTER TRALA, a/k/a Sonny, a/k/a Walter John Trala,
Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of North Carolina, at Raleigh.
James C. Dever III,
Chief District Judge. (5:13-cr-00282-D-1)

Submitted:

January 23, 2015

Before SHEDD and
Circuit Judge.

AGEE,

Circuit

Decided:

Judges,

and

January 28, 2015

HAMILTON,

Senior

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Thomas P. McNamara, Federal Public Defender, Eric J. Brignac,
Assistant Federal Public Defender, Raleigh, North Carolina, for
Appellant. Thomas G. Walker, United States Attorney, Jennifer P.
May-Parker, Phillip A. Rubin, Assistant United States Attorneys,
Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

Appeal: 14-4308

Doc: 38

Filed: 01/28/2015

Pg: 2 of 3

PER CURIAM:
Following

a

hearing,

the

district

court

found

that

John Walter Trala violated the terms of his supervised release.
The

court

sentence.

revoked

release

and

Trala now appeals.

imposed

a

twenty-four-month

We affirm.
I

The

motion

for

revocation

charged two violations of release.

of

supervised

release

First, Trala was alleged to

have received stolen goods or property.

Second, he was alleged

to have possessed a firearm while a felon and to have possessed
a stolen firearm.

The district court found by a preponderance

of the evidence that Trala violated both conditions of release.
We

review

a

district

court’s

decision

supervised release for abuse of discretion.
Copley, 978 F.2d 829, 831 (4th Cir 1992).

to

revoke

United States v.
To revoke release,

the district court need only find a violation of a condition of
release

by

a

preponderance

§ 3583(e)(3) (2012).

of

the

evidence.

18

U.S.C.

This burden “simply requires the trier of

fact to believe that the existence of a fact is more probable
than its nonexistence.”
631

(4th

review

Cir.

for

conclusion

2010)

clear
that

a

United States v. Manigan, 592 F.3d 621,

(internal
error

quotation

factual

violation

of

marks

findings

supervised

omitted).

We

underlying

the

release

occurred.

United States v. Carothers, 337 F.3d 1017, 1019 (8th Cir. 2003).
2

Appeal: 14-4308

Doc: 38

Credibility

Filed: 01/28/2015

determinations

Pg: 3 of 3

made

by

the

district

court

revocation hearings are rarely reviewable on appeal.

at

United

States v. Cates, 613 F.3d 856, 858 (6th Cir. 2010)
Trala
finding

that

incorrectly
he

violated

claims

that

the

district

release

was

based

court’s

solely

on

its

determination that Trala’s testimony at the revocation hearing
was

not

credible.

To

the

contrary,

the

district

court

specifically based its finding on the evidence as a whole as
well as its credibility determination against Trala.

Further,

evidence presented at the hearing fully supports the district
court’s finding.
stolen

The evidence established that Trala possessed

ammunition

Baretta.

and

fired

and

attempted

to

sell

a

stolen

We conclude that the court did not clearly err in

determining

by

a

preponderance

of

the

evidence

that

Trala

committed the charged violations of supervised release.
II
We accordingly affirm.

We dispense with oral argument

because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented
in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the
decisional process.
AFFIRMED

3